Aleris will close Shelbyville plant

Aleris International Inc. announced Wednesday that it will permanently close its Shelbyville alloy plant, which is located on Railroad Avenue across from Central High School. Production will be phased out, states a news release, and the site is expected to permanently close by summer.

The plant has about 70 employees. Production will be transferred to other facilities.

"It's unfortunate news," said Shelbyville & Bedford County Chamber of Commerce CEO Walt Wood. But he said other local industries have expanded their employment recently and that the Chamber is continuing to work with both existing employers and new prospects.

"We'll work as hard as we can to bring new jobs," said Wood.

Aleris International, Inc. is headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and operates 48 production facilities in North America, Europe, South America and Asia, with approximately 8,800 employees.

The Aleris site, which melts down aluminum scrap, has had a succession of different names and owners, including IMCO. At one time, it was owned by Alcan. Later, long after Alcan had sold the aluminum plant, Alcan bought the American Can / Cebal plant on Madison Street. That plant, which produces plastic tubes for cosmetics, is still owned by Alcan and is not connected with or affected by the Aleris plant in any way.

In 2006, the Aleris plant installed warning sirens in case of a chlorine leak and announced that it had made $2 million in environmental improvements at the site. Some had complained about odors, supposedly from the plant, being smelled on the high school campus.